Woman tricked into abortion sues Florida pharmacy

Remee Jo Lee miscarried after her boyfriend gave her pills she was misled to believe were simple antibiotics.Courtesy of Gil Sanchez

A Florida woman who had a miscarriage after her boyfriend tricked her into taking pills that can cause abortions is now suing the pharmacy where the drug was dispensed.

The woman, Remee Jo Lee, 27, says in the suit that she thought she was getting amoxicillin, an antibiotic, when she accepted the pills in March from her boyfriend, who falsely said they'd been prescribed by his father — an obstetrician who'd confirmed her pregnancy.

Instead, she was given misoprostol, a stomach ulcer medicine that can cause abortion and birth defects.

The boyfriend, John Andrew Welden, 28, pleaded guilty last month to federal charges that he forged his father's signature on the prescription and conspired with an employee of the pharmacy to order the misoprostol. He faces almost 14 years in prison when he is sentenced in December.

Police found text messages showing that Lee, who met Welden in 2012 at the gentlemen's club where she worked, wanted to keep the baby but that Welden didn't.

In the plea agreement, Welden said he asked an employee of Sunlake Pharmacy and Compounding Lab in Lutz, north of Tampa, to fill the fake prescription and provide a fraudulently labeled pill bottle. The plea agreement said the Sunlake employee knew Welden was up to no good.

Lee's suit accuses Sunlake of negligence, arguing that "a reasonably competent, concerned and safe pharmacist would have recognized the prescription ... was grossly in error."